First Impressions: Mass Effect 3: Galaxy At War

When BioWare announced there'd be a multiplayer mode for Mass Effect 3, that's really the point where I started assuming the worst. You know, because what place did multiplayer have in a story-centric RPG like this? (I haven't forgotten BioWare's old CRPGs, but this is a different situation.) What was the point, other than to appeal to the Gears of War/Battlefield 3 crowd? (Nothing against those games; I own and play both.)

(Parentheses.)

The really clever thing about the multiplayer, though, is that they didn't make it some separate entity where it's really just a battle royale for no reason. BioWare have gone through a lot of trouble to ensure that not only does Galaxy At War make sense within the context of the lore and the story, but it also ties back in with the singleplayer mode in a creative way. I'll go over that first before we dive into the actual game.

In Mass Effect 3, most of the game revolves around Shepard uniting the galactic races against the Reaper onslaught by way of the main campaign and the many sidequests that are woven in throughout. By doing this, you add "War Assets" to your overall "Effective Military Strength", the latter of which is represented by the big progress bar that you have access to in your war room on the Normandy. Collect more war assets and the EMS progress bar fills up more and more, and in order to get the "best" ending, that bar needs to be filled up all the way.

Now, you can max out your EMS exclusively through singleplayer if you wish, but it requires that you really go out of your way to grind out those sidequests and scanning quests for war assets. Let's say you're on your second playthrough, and you just really don't want to do all of that planet scanning again, but you still want to fill up your EMS bar all the way. Galaxy At War essentially provides an alternative for this. The more matches you win in multiplayer, the more your "Galactic Readiness" increases.

Your Galactic Readiness acts as a multiplier for your war assets, so you can pretty much look at it like this:

(War Assets) X (Galactic Readiness) = (Effective Military Strength)

Basically, you can play multiplayer in place of the many sidequests, if that is your preference. To that end, the singleplayer and multiplayer modes complement each other quite nicely, adding more depth and spontaneity to Shepard's overall goal. It's nice to know that you can take a break from the game... by playing another part of the game - and you'll be working toward the same goal in each. I'm hesitant to say more games should do this, but it definitely makes multiplayer modes look like less of a slight against the prime function of the product.

So! That's how Galaxy At War functions within the context of Shepard's quest. But how does it play?

Gameplay - "BioWare Loves Waves."

Galaxy At War is probably excessively complex for what it actually is. Basically, it's "Horde Mode" from Gears of War, and "Firefight Mode" from Halo. It's wave combat, with you and three other players going up against ten waves of increasingly stronger enemies, such as: Geth, Reapers, and Cerberus. Your task is to survive, and do as much damage to your foes as you possibly can.

Randomly divvied out through the waves are simple little missions that add to the challenge. Kill these targets or Activate these terminals or Upload the information... Actually, I think those are the only three.

The game itself is remarkably barebones. Beyond an adjustment of difficulty - Bronze, Silver, and Gold difficulties, that is - there's really not much here in the way of variety. Playing the game a handful of times will probably show you everything the game has to offer. And since it plays almost exactly like the base game, you won't be surprised by much.

But when I say the game is perhaps excessively complex, I'm referring to the customization options.

Customization - "Diversity in Combat."

The neat thing about the multiplayer mode is that it allows you to customize your own character - albeit in simplified ways, but it's still entertaining. All of the classes from the base game are available, and each class sports a group of three different characters for you to choose from. For instance, choosing the "Soldier" class will give you the option of being a Human Female, Human Male, or a Turian. For "Vanguard", a Drell, Asari, and a Human are available.

And so on.

Choosing one of these characters will allow you to give them a name, customize their color scheme, loadout weapons, and distribute points into the various trees as you level up. In essence, you can tailor your character to fit your play style. And let me tell you, it's pretty satisfying and exciting to charge into battle as a turian. If you've ever wanted to play a character of another race, this is pretty much your first opportunity to do so.

But even with customization options available to you, you're still going through all this trouble to level up your character, acquire weapons, skill points, color options, etc. to play a game that never really changes. It's only one game mode and six different levels, all of which you might have played before in the singleplayer story.

It's barebones, but that might have been intentional on account of...

Monetization - "Why Play When You Can Pay?"

It's obvious that EA/BioWare are looking at their multiplayer mode with an Activision/Riot Games mindset. The levels that are offered at this point are pretty unremarkable and static. You can tell that there's going to be a map pack in the near future. A character pack, as well.

Additionally, most of the characters, customization options, weapons, and mods in the game have to be unlocked. You can do this by playing through different levels, acquiring credits, and spending them on veritable grab bags that might contain the upgrades or the characters you so desire. There are three different packs, with the cheapest one having the least chance of containing good items or characters.

But let's say you're tired of playing through the game and just want to unlock your turian soldier right now. Well, EA/BioWare have graciously allowed you the option of purchasing these item packs with Microsoft Points. So if you don't want to play the game to get that "Spectre Pack", you can just buy it with real money.

I'm not opposed to stuff like this in theory. I've played League of Legends, and I think charging people for cosmetic items is a pretty neat way to displace the fact that the game is free. The thing about BioWare's Galaxy At War is that it's not free; it's unlocked with the dreaded Online Pass, and you have a rotten goddamn chance of getting the characters and mods that you will definitely need if you want to play at the higher difficulties without being carried by the other players.

I'm almost at level 20 with my character, and I still haven't unlocked a single mod for my assault rifle. It's by the grace of the Goddess that the only character I've managed to unlock was the only one I wanted: the turian soldier. So, for now, I'm stuck at Bronze difficulty, hoping I'll unlock the mods I need to ascend to the... higher difficulty for the same levels.

Eh...

In Summation - "Buy You A Fight In Space."

In theory, Galaxy At War is a fantastic idea. And actually, in theory, it's pretty fun for a while! Being able to fight off the Geth or the Reapers or Cerberus with your friends, playing as your favorite race, is damned entertaining. It plays like Mass Effect 3, contains sufficient customization to add some much needed depth to it all, offers some good ol' co-op action and a distraction from the singleplayer campaign that'll actually end up benefiting Shepard's mission.

The multiplayer just doesn't seem to have the kind of staying power that I'm sure EA/BioWare were hoping for. There's no real reason to progress or get better or hit that upper tier other than the achievement, and the single "wave combat" mode gets old fairly quickly. There's also that prevalent feeling that eventually, with the right amount of cash in hand, you'll be able to buy the experience you're craving.

"Space Cash..."

It's all a bit uneven once the initial thrill wears off, but it's still multiplayer Mass Effect. Although, with Assassin's Creed now shipping with a lengthy campaign and a rich multiplayer mode that also ties back into its own story, you might wonder why EA/BioWare didn't push the envelope a bit further.